Ponyville theater, the massive half-circle carved into the side of a hill was the pride of the principality. Able to seat ten thousand ponies, it was the second largest in Equestria. A painful burden for the town to build under her great-grand mother, but it had turned the agricultural powerhouse into a hub of the arts as well.

Baron Velvet looked up at the crowd: every seat taken, and more ponies made seats out of the grassy hillside. Today she was hosting several thousand more ponies than actually lived in ponyville, but one pony was painfully absent.

“She’ll turn up” her husband said, resting a hoof on her shoulder. She wished she had his optimism.

“Thank you,” she whispered back. Giving him a quick kiss, his horn was already glowing with the golden hue of the summer covenant. The rite was beginning, she had to play her part.

Stepping out onto the stage, the crowd hushed. “We are here to make the oath,” the baron spoke, careful architecture carrying her voice to the far corners of the theater.

Ten thousand hooves stomped the ground to punctuate her sentence.

Looking to her husband and son, she watched them descend the podium and join the ranks of the other unicorns. Her daughter should be standing next to her now. She wondered if she was alive and if she had gotten her mark. With the cutie mark came the pains of the rite.

Two fillies ascended the stage, the Apple daughter, and Commander Loralshy’s daughter. They were both Sparkle’s age. Far too young to take the mantle that had been forced on them. But their youth had not saved them the pain of losing their parents, and it didn’t remove their family’s responsibility ether. Pleasant or not, it was lucky they had gotten their marks before the Summer Sun: choosing a replacement would have been a political firestorm.

The Apple daughter... Applejack—she had to stop thinking of her as Honey’s daughter, she was the family head now, took her place with pride. Another Apple matriarch that wouldn’t back down from a dragon’s breath. She was young and untested, but the Baron had a good feeling about her.

Fluttershy took her place on the stage with shaky, measured steps; a sharp contrast to the stoic Applejack. The poor thing was scared whittles, but she took her spot all the same. Unlike Applejack, she knew Fluttershy. She had grown up alongside her own daughter; Sparkle's honorary little sister. Here too was a filly with more depth than most could see.

“Do not be ashamed of your fear,” The baron said just loud enough for the pegasus to hear, as she lined up besides her. “We are, what we do when we are afraid.”

Fluttershy nodded, the words seeming to ease the stage fright.

“You mother would be proud,” Twilight Velvet whispered in Fluttershy’s ear, before returning her attention to the masses.

She felt bad for welding the specter of the filly's mother like that, but it was true; she would be proud. Loralshy and been as true a friend as one could ever be blessed with: quirky on a good day, but the best at what she did.

Stepping forward, the Barron spoke. “The summer noon comes, the rite will take its share of our lives and the sun will continue for another year. It is ours to give of ourselves. It is ours to guard the covenant. We shepherd our fellow ponies into one herd, for one is stronger than three”

Some two thousand unicorns stomped their hooves. Their horns involuntary glow redoubled with the pledge.

Stepping back in line, Velvet laid a hoof on Applejack’s withers, with a nod she gave the filly her cue. A nervous fidget played across Applejack’s face before steeling herself and stepped forward.

“The land is ours, never to be taken. With it we feed our families and we feed Equestria. It is ours to succor the hungry. It is ours to strengthen the land.”

Six thousand hooves stomped the earth. The Earthpony pledge sounded the valley like the mother of all thunder. The rumble fading as the unicorn’s horns brightened again.

Velvet checked the ceremonial sundial as Applejack stepped back, there were only moments left before solar noon. Every principality across Equestria was doing the same thing right now.

Placing a hoof on Fluttershy, she motioned her to step forward, but withdrew her hoof when Fluttershy looked back. Loralshy’s hard glare stared at her from the grave. The filly wore her mother’s eyes with the expression Loralshy was famous, or rather infamous for. With a curt nod, Loralshy’s daughter turned and approached the edge of the stage.

“We are free to serve who we wish, but bound to protect all we see. Ours is to never own land. It is ours to forever have the sky.”

Three thousand pegasi stomp their hooves, and the sun took its zenith. Gold fire consumed every unicorn, dropping many to their knees.

Baron Velvet clenched her jaw and presented the strongest front she could; she had to be strong. At the heart of the covenant was the celestial alignment; the spell that set the sun and moon in motion a year at a time. It took more magic than all the unicorns in Equestria could provide, making the difference out of their very life. It was why few of her tribe saw the age of sixty.

Grandmother Apple would be one hundred eighty this fall, and had a good chance of outliving the her.

With the spell having taken what it needed, the gold fire floated off each unicorn and lifted into the sky, and pain faded quicker than it had come. Taking a deep breath Baron Velvet looked over the crowd of unicorns. The earth ponies and pegasus were pressing into their ranks, helping the weakened to find their hooves, comforting the unicorns still reeling from the ordeal. The neat rows of segregated ponies devolved into a writhing mass.

That was the second half of the rite, the bonding. Part psychological, part magic, the rite mangled the consciousness of the pony race, and glazed it over with a narcotic glow. Herd mentality, fueled with magic blurred the lines of self.

Twilight Velvet mind began to slip into the chaotic blur of the herd. Centering herself she clung to her sense of self, allowing only an awareness of the others around her. She longed to join the masses, the bonding was the warmest blanket, the safest place, the most loving hug all in one existence. But she was the Barion, she had to keep removed.

The two fillies besides her pressed against her. Looking down she could see they were scared. She gave them a mother’s smile and pulled them close; they were battling the collective conscious for the first time, afraid to let themselves slip into the dream. It was a good sign, weak-minded ponies gave into the call without hesitation. But, this was their first rite, they should know the herd.

“It’s ok,” she cooed. “It’s a safe place, let yourself go.”

Indeed it was a safe place. Dragons and griffons both had learned the hard way to avoid the rite. Even benign-parasite changelings tread softly on the day of the rite.

Twilight Velvet stroked the filly's manes and watched them slip into the herd mind. She expected them to run off and play with abandoned, but instead they pressed harder into her, curling up under her, they clung to her like yearlings. Anypony would assume them her daughters...

The thought hung in her mind a moment with a lump in her throat. Her defense against the herd consciousness weakened, it’s warm embrace called her. Catching the slip she pushed back against it, but not before she felt the minds of the little ones beneath her; they had felt her sadness. It was with the love for a mother that they reached out to sooth her. Her wall cracked, and she gave herself over to the herd. Curling nose to tail she encircled the foals and closed her eyes.